Cleaning Strings

[Bass-4-God]

Can you clean strings with regular rubbing alcohol.

[bikeplate]

HI

Sure. I wash them in the washing machine. Hot water, full load. Wrap the strings like the way they were when new, place them around the spindle. Put in a bit of simplegreen. Take them out, dry them in the over or in the sun. Saves me hundreds of dollars every year

Rob

[permadave]

Originally Posted by Bass-4-God

Can you clean strings with regular rubbing alcohol.

Denatured alcohol works best because rubbing alcohol has water mixed in.

check this link out, I made one and they work great. I would use a wider pipe though. I think mine is 1 1/2".

http://www.tunemybass.com/strings/ba...ning_tube.html

[WJGreer]

Yes, I think so. Rubbing alcohol is a type of denatured alcohol prepared for topical use. It would work, although a more potent denatured alcohol, like the kind you find in the paint aisle at Home Depot, would be more effective and also less expensive by volume.

In any case, as Rob said above, this is a great cadence to get into. I used to string a new set every six to eight weeks, even when I was boiling. Now that I use denatured alcohol, I can keep the strings sounding great until they fail - which almost always happens right at the point where the string meets the tuning peg. I might go through two to four sets per year for basses I play a lot.

[blankstare77]

Originally Posted by bikeplate

HI

Sure. I wash them in the washing machine. Hot water, full load. Wrap the strings like the way they were when new, place them around the spindle. Put in a bit of simplegreen. Take them out, dry them in the over or in the sun. Saves me hundreds of dollars every year

Rob

My sarcasm-o-meter is off the charts.

[bikeplate]

HI

Why do u say that? Unless you are offering me a string endorsement, I will continue to do it. 4 string sets are $22 a pop and 5 string sets over $30. I play about 185 nights a year. You do the math. After you do the math, paypal me the $ it would take to keep me in fresh strings. Mine go dead after about 4 shows.

Rob

[Ryan L.]

I sometimes boil mine, and then dry em out in the oven. Brings em back to life quite nicely. And saves a ton on buying new strings.

Also, moved to the Strings forum.

[RSY]

So, how does this alcohol cleaning go? Is it a soaking (how long?), or a thorough wipe-down?

Is the restorative effect as pronounced as boiling?

Gracias, amigos.

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by RSY

So, how does this alcohol cleaning go? Is it a soaking (how long?), or a thorough wipe-down?

Is the restorative effect as pronounced as boiling?

Gracias, amigos.

I would say the boiling does more. You are recoiling the string which opens up the windings to help get rid of gunk. Then the boiling the heat helps too.

[koentje_bassist]

But the boiling changes the feel of the string. Use spiritus in a pipe, it's the best. The method was described by a dutch guy on some lousy forum, but hey, it works very good!

[manicbassman]

Originally Posted by RSY

So, how does this alcohol cleaning go? Is it a soaking (how long?), or a thorough wipe-down?

Is the restorative effect as pronounced as boiling?

Gracias, amigos.

see here:

http://www.tunemybass.com/strings/ho...s_strings.html

and here:

http://www.tunemybass.com/strings/ba...ning_tube.html

and if I'm not mistaken... the strings FAQ is a sticky thread... but the above two links really need to be added to it. Boiling already is...

I'd personally recommend using denatured alcohol (Methylated Spirits as it's called in other places)

The important thing is to carefully remove your strings from the Bass and only straighten the tail enough to get them through the hole in the bridge/body. Repeated bending of the tails is what causes the failure described earlier in this thread.

[Shoewreck]

Boiling is dangerous for strings. If you don't dry boiled strings very quickly they usually go dead in a week or two (I suppose it's some kind of internal corrosion that occurs).

[PilbaraBass]

Originally Posted by bikeplate

HI

Why do u say that? Unless you are offering me a string endorsement, I will continue to do it. 4 string sets are $22 a pop and 5 string sets over $30. I play about 185 nights a year. You do the math. After you do the math, paypal me the $ it would take to keep me in fresh strings. Mine go dead after about 4 shows.

Rob

+740

let's say 5 gigs per set...185 gigs per year...37 sets per year...
even @ $20 per set, that's $740 per year...

boiling you can EASILY save about $500 a year...that's a down payment on a new Sadowsky!

[PilbaraBass]

By the way...

I'm not nearly as brutal on my strings...they easily last me 10 gigs (Now days, I only play in church about 20-30 times a year)...I just soak them 2 or 3 days in some denatured alcohol aka "methylated spirits" (ethanol poisoned with a bit of methanol)

[koentje_bassist]

The only thing: it stinks the hell out of you! Wash your hands before dinner because the methanol ain't good for you.

[Phalex]

The cleanest strings come out of paper envelopes.

Why the aversion to new strings??

[WJGreer]

Originally Posted by Phalex

The cleanest strings come out of paper envelopes.

Why the aversion to new strings??

I love new strings. I hate paying for them.

[Sundogue]

Originally Posted by Phalex

The cleanest strings come out of paper envelopes.

Why the aversion to new strings??

Scenario.

You are all ready to order a new set of strings and you have enough "fun" money to buy them. You have a gig coming up in a week.

You are just about to place your order when your son comes up to you and tells you he needs $20 in order to participate in (pick any sport he might be in).

Just like that, boiling or soaking in alcohol becomes an attractive alternative to new strings.

I prefer to just wipe my strings down with alcohol after every gig or practice and then order new ones about every two months (which is just about when my old ones need replacing). Unless of course, one of my kids need some money for something right then. It depends on the funds available though. Most of the time I have my string fund set aside no matter if the kids need some cash or not.

[62bass]

Originally Posted by RSY

So, how does this alcohol cleaning go? Is it a soaking (how long?), or a thorough wipe-down?

Is the restorative effect as pronounced as boiling?

Gracias, amigos.

I've used methyl alcohol (the stuff sold as a shellac thinner in Home Depot) and the soaking method in the past. I didn't bother rigging up a long pipe. I used a Tupperware container with a lid and coiled the strings loosely in them and let them soak overnight. When I took them out I dried them with a cotton cloth and reinstalled them. Sure, they were brighter for a little while. I once tried boiling a set of roundwounds for about 15 minutes. It worked too but the silk wrappings started to deteriorate soon after.

Rubbing alcohol is too expensive and has too much water in it and seems less effective. The methyl alcohol is cheap and comes in gallon containers which will last a long time. Keep it tightly covered and treat it as a flammable liquid. Use ventilation when using it. Don't let pets drink it or drink it yourself. A small amount can cause a painful, lingering death.

Using the Tupperware container, you can save the alcohol for quite a while if you keep the lid on, and reuse it, pehaps topping it up from time to time.

That's probably the cheapest and easiest way to do it. You might also want to look into getting your strings in bulk someplace.

These days I don't play roundwounds and don't care for that bright sound so I haven't done the string soaking thing. I just wipe down my flatwounds after playing.

But if you must have that roundwound sound, give the soak method a try.

[koentje_bassist]

Just stick your strings in a small pipe with the alcohol. After 10 hours, you take the strings out and you let the alcohol drip through a coffee filter before doing it in it's original housing. Re- and re- and re-...